Moved to kitchen countertop as they prepare to release those brilliant petals. I’m going to try to save them for next year.

Happy Valentines Day

Love your people! 

43°F here today, chilly and still damp from yesterday's continuous rain showers. I'm starting to "feel" that cold in my finger joints, especially the left thumb. Those flowers. What a treat to have flowers opening up right there in the middle of the room. They've been trying to show off for the past several days but today they are really making me smile.

I drove a couple hours of full on windshield wipers yesterday to see my youngest daughter.  Sometimes you just have to get eyes on to know they are well. Her eyes were bright, happy, though I couldn't help noticing the slightly bruised look that the fatigue "of this" highly demanding degree plan is asking of her. All that freshman year eagerness, and anxiousness, has dissipated.  She knows she will do well. She also knows what that's going to take ... and it's still all uphill from here. 

She wanted to "borrow" my extra coffee-press. Unfortunately I sat that down too close to the edge of the butcher block and it tumpled, tumbled, over last week and broke. That she is thinking of strong coffee is telling because up till now she's been more the five dollar SB frothy type. I miss her, but I could not be more thrilled with getting to see who she is growing up to be.

I am reticent to share stuff about the kids. One of them might want to run for office someday ... and I cringe to think of some random comment I made being parsed about as is the current trend. I am amazed at what is posted on social media - in general. A person inadvertently shares so many details which create impressions that are probably more telling of the viewer's frame of reference then they are of the actual reality.

Those flowers are making me smile today and I captured a very pretty picture but there's stuff you don't see. My olive tree, wintering over in that bright corner, is shedding last year's leaves faster than I am sweeping them up. The new leaves have practically taken over. I wonder if putting it back outside when the temperature is reliably above 65°F is best for it. There is also a three tier drying rack, you know, that collapsable kind, crowded up with fabric scraps that I'm ironing and sorting in preparation for my next quilt. Kingsize. 

This is me fretting a little bit about family stuff. 

There was a little tangle up over the holidays involving the introduction of a new significant other to the rest of the siblings. It's as yet unresolved and I'm not sure about what my role should be or has been in this.  

My default has always been to withdraw from "drama", but when people you love are involved ... I feel called to reach for my "best" but ... these waters are as uncharted as they were when we launched the boat back in the mid 1980s. I'm not sure I'm getting better at this. I'm getting slower, more intentional. More watchful, even I think, respectful, but it's still not intuitive for me.